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A quick introduction to Singlish

Björn Andersson
October 26, 2018
100

A quick introduction to Singlish

Intending to teach some people from Scotland about Singapore through language (since they too have a very specific English)

Björn Andersson

October 26, 2018
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Transcript

  1. Singlish is • A pidgin • simplified language • primarily

    English mixed with Cantonese, Hokkien, Malay, and Tamil • a sentence structure similar to Chinese languages
  2. Singlish is • A pidgin • simplified language • primarily

    English mixed with Cantonese, Hokkien, Malay, and Tamil
  3. Singlish is • A pidgin • simplified language • primarily

    English mixed with Cantonese, Hokkien, Malay, and Tamil • a sentence structure similar to Chinese languages
  4. The tonality of can • Can? • Questioning • Can…

    • Pondering • Can! • Realization
  5. The tonality of can • Can? • Questioning • Can…

    • Pondering • Can! • Realization • Caaaan!!
  6. The tonality of can • Can? • Questioning • Can…

    • Pondering • Can! • Realization • Caaaan!! • Agreement
  7. Suffixes • Can lah • Obviously, or most definitely so

    • Can leh • Possibly, a less strong version of lah
  8. Suffixes • Can lah • Obviously, or most definitely so

    • Can leh • Possibly, a less strong version of lah • Can lor
  9. Suffixes • Can lah • Obviously, or most definitely so

    • Can leh • Possibly, a less strong version of lah • Can lor • Oh okay then, a bit of indifference and resignation
  10. – English “We could or could not do that. The

    choice is yours, my friend.”